ZBA Hearing - April 29, 2026

and there's the main floor

here's the kitchen in the back of the house

there's a men's room

ladies room

commercial trash pickup place is already well lit uh much bigger you know better uh lit than it was

in the past and cleaned up uh with that mr brown did you hear my presentation to the board today

yes is it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge yes and do you adopt it as your own

testimony yes would you like to share what you've done so far with the property and how you plan on

doing it moving forward with the restaurant yes i was in the business for 47 years i wrote for

all of the family, the Jeffersons, and many more. I've been doing this my whole life, and for an

African-American director to be able to open up a theater in Philadelphia of this size to bring

jobs, opportunities, education, and more to Philadelphia, it's my pleasure to make sure that

we are the mega of entertainment in the world, but also safe and honorary and also dedicated to

the arts, dedicated to educating the arts, and we will make sure that the theater is one of the

best. Diana Ross, people like that, coming to North Philadelphia, changing North Philadelphia.

We took away all of the crime by ourselves for it to be nice, safe. Right now, when you ride on

that part of Philadelphia, it's clear. No crime, no people standing around, and the building is

beautiful um it's back to the same color i also made it historical uh last year and um i did that

because i want to make sure that the theater stays there and open for life and generations after us

can come and do the same thing we have security we have everything possible we also have two

charter buses that's going to be riding from Broad and Indiana to the theater free for anybody that

got a ticket to the theater free for the workers that work there and that's my treat to Philadelphia

but I honored because Philadelphia is a great place I've been here many years I worked the

Academy of Music I worked the Met but now it's time for us to do something in Philadelphia

North Philadelphia. So Uptown will be the place to go to. And parking and everything is what we

have. And I'm just honored to be in front of you, Your Honor, and many more, just to show you that

we will change entertainment forever. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Brown.

Clarification. Is that broad in Erie or broad in Olney?

It's broad in Wyoming.

That's where the theater is, where the shuttles are coming.

yes the shuttle will come from it will come from yeah it will come from broad and airy

one way i have another shutter it's coming from broad and nidro but anybody that has a ticket to

any show uh matinee night show they will be picked up we also have we're going to have parking in

different places like donut what i yeah what i've already submitted into evidence are several

agreements with various parking lots in the area so that we could i mean we have to talk

We've got to talk about the arts, but we still have to talk about what's up.

Yeah.

Clear.

All right.

Yes.

Yeah.

Five different lots that we already have agreements with, too.

And that's all being already submitted into evidence.

We are working with the Philadelphia local police district to make sure that that back

street is a residential street on the other side.

So that's going to be blocked off to through traffic, very much like we do in South Philadelphia

during games.

So that if you live there, you can park there.

But other than that, you're not going to be able to get in there.

There's also a parking lot adjacent to the theater. That's only going to be for tour buses and for like pick up and drop off during the day so that and all of that traffic will come in and come out of Broad Street side, not the small residential street in the back.

All of this has already been agreed to and in writing with Mr. Karn and the 13th Ward. Thank you.

Other questions?

So has the facade been restored?

Yes.

yes it's already historic okay i haven't been up that way in a while it's beautiful there's

Yes, it has.

historic okay i haven't been up that way in a while yeah it's beautiful there's uh big signs

a big signs that say cecily tyner musical theater it's all in beautiful white there

all the windows are done up real nice and uh we welcome you and when diana ross comes

you're all invited i got front row seats okay i have two questions uh one in terms of you

said that you made this historical is this locally designated yes it's been designated

by the historical commission yes ah okay all right great and then my second question is uh for the

kitchen uh on this for this um second floor facility uh the venting how is that done right

through the roof okay all right great and on the broad street side not the residential side in the

back oh okay all right thank you yep it's like a full service menu oh yes really okay all right

no i just wanted yes it's going to be good cornbread sweet potato okay it's so it's going to be

everything and the building is i'm glad you were able to get some type of designation for it

so my question is you've done the facade is there any plans to beautify like the um the front of

the building like at any kind of type of landscaping or something like that flower i was thinking about

uh putting like the giant size of flowers out there in the front right where they come in at

and put some really

in the summertime exotic

flowers and then in the winter something

a little more rougher

and then also I own

my own ticket outlet so it won't go through

Live Nation or it won't go through Ticketmaster

it goes right through Cicely Tyson

Performing Arts Center, everything

goes through us and we're also

going to be doing a job fair

and we're going to be hiring everybody

from busboy to ushers to

everything, we're going to bring a lot

of jobs to Philadelphia

here uh for a long time and uh so and then my other question is in terms of just managing um

the entry when you have events um like the line management is there i know that there's other

stuff on the block so is there like a plan uh like the lines are going to swing and go as the lines

are going to swing actually uh our building almost take up the whole side uh burger king is like

almost a half a block down and then on the other side it used to be a hair salon but hopefully we

can get that built into and make it into something but um the next place would be the chinese

restaurant and they out there every day sweeping for us yeah they're great they're a good neighbor

they've already built relationships that'll be like the miller theater where you know just is

right down the street uh going north and the last question is you will you have commercial trash

pickup or yes okay thank you um i have a question about your lease does it cover dr owens flat next

store or is it just for the theater yes it covers the lot and everything so you have 47 32 to 36 as

well yes i have i have it all yes and for quite some time yeah it's a long lease what was what

was the hours of hours of operation for the restaurant theater for the dinner theater you

have two shows so if we had kenny g there kenny g will come on at 6 30 and he will get off at 8

and then the next show

would be 9 and they'd get off 10.30.

The whole theater itself,

the dinner theater, will close at 12

midnight every night. It won't go over

that. The theater

will close, the regular theater

concerts will be over

around a quarter to 12,

no later than that.

Is that every night?

Well, not the theater.

No, the dinner theater.

The restaurant upstairs will be six nights a week.

Oh, six nights.

yes black okay not seven but six yes blackout on uh mondays okay

kind of similar to like city winery downtown in terms of like you could always eat dinner there

but if there's a show that's correct yeah yeah if i don't have a ticket to the show i could still go

up there and have dinner and listen to some jazz or something and then i just know like second

floor restaurants are difficult so what's going to be the plan given that it's historic and you've

already restored the front of the theater to try to I guess like make it known and get people in

and then my second question just because I know this building fall too well um there's no elevator

in it so what's the plan for accessibility to the second level we're just we're designating

one stairway or two big steers we're designating the stair on the left side for it's going to have

a mobile chair with two chairs in it and then we have somebody at the top of the steps to

help that person off if that person needs help but that will strictly be uh for handicapped people

and then are you gonna have wheelchair because like if they're handicapped and they can walk

down the steps once they get to the balcony you're gonna have staff that's handling that

portion or even we'll have ushers and we also will have always a medical person on site uh

a medical person on site. I learned that with doing these things in California, you never know

I learned that with doing these things.

when somebody might get excited or somebody might come see Al Green and he dance. Yeah. I might pass

out for Diane Ross. I mean, let's be honest. Is there any future plans at all to make it fully

accessible by adding an elevator or is that not? Long-term plan. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Because

that would only help the restaurant. And how are you going to be managing the parking for

people who are coming from off-site who are parking their own cars understand that you have

agreements with different lots around but how are people getting because they're going to be

ticketed like how is that going to be managed and are you managing it are you going to subcontract

that out so like a like a valet or like a parking lots there's no tickets there's no cost for the

lot for the parking no cost for the parking that we have people go get in free and they'll be

shut and the theater is going to have shuttles all at the lot so folks don't even have to walk

to the theater they could just jump on the little white shuttle bus and and and get there yeah

just because some of them are a little bit of a walk away yeah yeah we'll make sure that's why

yeah any other questions i have one other uh witness who would like to just testify oh

very briefly sure yeah sure gentleman from the the freemasons could you let him sit down please

thank you

good morning sir

good morning could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer my name is vaughn

taylor b-a-u-g-h-n-t-a-y-l-o-r do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing

but the truth yes counsel mr mr bond can you please just tell the board your position uh

and uh where you stand on this appeal uh two things i'm with the uh most works for pencil

grand lodge of pennsylvania which is located 4301 broad street yep and we're in approval

of the center so we're right down the street yeah i'm also with the approved but don't protect the

board of Elks of the world. I'm a past Grand Exeter Ruler. We're right down the street at 4932 Broad Street.

You got it in between there, right?

Yeah, and I'm in approval of that as well. I represent both stations and the first district, and they're excited about bringing it to me.

All right. Thank you very much. I have nothing further.

All right, questions from our attorney?

I'm not at this time, Mr. Chair.

Questions or comments from the virtual audience or the audience here?

yes mr chair i have a hand up from a charles

corn i will promote them and they should be back in shortly

you see rco guy right yes

Mr. Karn, please unmute.

Wait to be sworn in.

Got you.

Mr. Karn, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?

Charles Karn.

C-H-A-R-L-E-S, Karn, C-A-R-N.

Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

Yes, sir.

Please proceed, Mr. Karn.

chairman um i am the 13th ward rco i am the 13th ward rco chair we know that sir okay thanks um

we have um had several meetings with the um applicant and legal team we um we placed in our

submittals provisos um we are totally supportive however we've asked for contractual documents

In other words, promises said should be promises kept.

We have not received a lot of the documents that we've asked for, and that's what I'm here for.

Again, I can say I'm a Prince Hall Mason, too.

I'm all that.

But the issue is the density of which we're going to bring.

This is a residential neighborhood.

This is not commercial like the Met.

If you've been on that block, the 4,700 block, right next door to it is the Latter-day Saints Church to the north.

And someone brought up today about line control.

Line control. Okay. But again, the density and the parking, if you look at the documents that are submitted, we didn't understand them. Let's put it like that. In a sense, there weren't signed agreements. These parking lots we're talking about probably hold about 20 cars, but that's down the road. He does have a bus service. He did say it, but we didn't see the documentation that can support that.

Okay, but again, the density and the part.

And the only way to provide those, right, if you see in our submittal, that's what we're asking for, to ensure that promises made are promises kept.

Again, this is a great opportunity for the community itself, but I'd see a couple issues in the overall picture of this.

And by the way, this operation is open already, so that's an issue for the surrounding community, and it has been open, and it was just brought to my knowledge that it was activity going on already with some sort of events.

I'm just trying to get clarity, that's all.

All right, so Mr. Stoddell, could you respond?

Sure. All the uses are consistent with the buy-write uses. There's nothing going on with the restaurant right now at all, number one. And number two, the packet has letters of intent. And that's all we can get right now. Once we have our permits and are able to actually operate, then we'll be able to enter into full contracts executed by my office, facilitated by my office, executed by my client.

And as Mr. Karn knows, I have told him personally, and I put this under oath on the record.

I'm providing him and his RCO with all of those contracts.

So thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

Anyone else in the virtual audience?

Chairperson.

sir um again if if we don't have a contract that something states something's going to happen

um the community feels though it may not happen so where do we go if promises are made and